Aerial: Patterns in a Joseph Ford’s project

While doing aerial photography, Joseph Ford has noticed how natural landscapes harmonize with the apparel

36 years old Joseph Ford,
A photographer from Brighton (Great Britain). Studied Italian and French in the University of Cambridge. Worked with American Express, Disneyland, Hewlett Packard, Lacoste, Mastercard and Vodafone. Gets inspired by works of Bill Brandt, Gabriel Jones and Lise Sarfati.

Idea

I have been mesmerized by the way patterns appear in nature or architecture since I began doing aerial photography. One of the views reminded me of the fabric texture, combining them seemed the next logical step. I shot from a helicopter with the doors removed or open, on a harness. I always pinpoint the locations I wanted to explore in advance — particular buildings I wanted to capture, different types of architecture or natural landscapes.

Implementation was very time-consuming and painstaking. The preparation took weeks — it required a lot of experimentation and tests.

The helicopter flights are quite challenging physically, but the hardest thing was to find the right matches between landscapes and clothes, while searching for inspiration either in the aerial views or in the details of the fashion items. I spent days in the studio trying different juxtapositions of clothing and aerial images, making tiny adjustments to the positioning and lighting.

Only fresh ideas can make outstanding fashion-photography. It will continue to evolve, but I can’t predict how. What I do know is that there will be people creating original ideas and that I hope to be one of them.

I have produced the series like this for various clients: Lacoste, Pepe Jeans, Missoni, Suddeutsche Zeitung Magazine, WAD magazine. The first series I shot was for WAD — I approached them with the aerial images, the other clients came to me after seeing my pictures online. One of my next projects will involve volcanoes, but I can't tell any more about it for now.